Tom Petty to Bachmann: Stop Using My Song

Michele Bachmann might be the Republican Party’s latest “American Girl,” but according to the Los Angeles Times Tom Petty reportedly told the stalwart conservative and presidential contender he doesn’t want her playing that song any more at campaign events.

Bachmann, R-Minn., played the 1977 hit at the end of two speeches she delivered this week in Waterloo, Iowa, where she formally kicked off her campaign at a rally Monday morning.

It’s not the first time the song has been used by a candidate. Hillary Clinton also played the tune at events when she sought the Democratic nomination in 2008. Petty didn’t object to her use. It has also been featured in several movies and television shows.

Nor is this the first time, Tom Petty has put the kibosh on a Republican candidate playing his music at campaign events. He reportedly shot down President Bush’s request to use “I Won’t Back Down.”

At the time this blog was published, the Bachmann campaign did not have a comment on whether the congresswoman would stop using the song at events.

After two strong weeks as a semi-official candidate, following an announcement earlier this month that she would run for office, Bachmann hit a rough patch this weekend. Her use of “American Girl” is the least of it.

On Sunday, the day before her official announcement, FOX News anchor Chris Wallace asked her if she was a “flake.” She called the question “insulting” and Wallace later apologized. On Monday, the blogosphere jumped on a comment she made in another FOX interview, confusing Waterloo the birthplace of actor John Wayne with John Wayne Gasey, the serial killer who actually was born there.

In an interview this morning on GMA, she stood by a previous controversial comment that America’s founding fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery, arguing that John Quincy Adams, who was 10 years old in 1776 worked to end the practice.